The ability of free-to-air television to attract viewers to its programming is increasingly residual. A clear case is that of Grey’s Anatomy: it gathered more than 20 million viewers in its first seasons and now, on the other hand, it is considered a series of correct audiences if it exceeds 3 million live. And, in the case of series like the members of the Law and Order franchise, the decline in audiences and, above all, advertising revenue is unleashing a wave of sales: if the cast and producers want to keep them on the air, they must assume that it is time to apply cuts.
Production teams and acting casts face cost reduction in different ways to make it viable for channels and production companies to keep the series on the air. This is a combination of declining advertising revenue, with a young audience that increasingly prioritizes fiction consumption on streaming platforms; the difficulties to make profitable the veteran series, whose costs increase over time; and some communication groups that, having problems making their streaming services profitable, are trying to keep the budgets of their channels at bay.
For example, the CBS channel, owned by Paramount Global, requested a fourteenth season of Blue Bloods, the police drama with Tom Selleck, after negotiations in which the cast agreed to a 25% salary cut. This means that, in addition to Selleck, also Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan, Will Estes and Len Cariou will see cuts in their checks (and, in the case of Selleck and Wahlberg, these previously moved at $200,000 and $150,000 respectively).
Bob Hearts Abishola, on the same channel as Blue bloods, will undergo similar maneuvers: it will have a fifth season because the cast headed by Billy Gardell and Folake Olowofoyeku will charge less, although without reaching a 25% reduction.
On NBC, on the other hand, there are six series that have agreed to cut the budget items allocated to the actors in order to continue broadcasting, even in the case of the series with the highest audience on the channel. They are the six Dick Wolf series produced by his production company Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television: Chicago fire, Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med, which make up the Wednesday fiction block, and Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Law & Order: Organized Crime, which air on Thursdays.
In this case, the casts will not charge less per episode but their negotiations have moved in another direction: the fixed actors will not participate in all the episodes of the next seasons. Thus, if the usual thing was for them to participate and charge for the 22 episodes of the season, they will only be guaranteed to work between 18 and 20 episodes. There will be actors who will be exempt from these negotiations, as is expected to happen with Mariska Hargitay, the visible face of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.
